talking You in. A Life watch created and told by dan Yashinsky PRESS Kit

PRESS RELEASE ARtiStS’ BioS thE PRoducERS PicS/downLoAdS talking You in. A Life watch 4 PRESS Kit

Please add to all Theatre Listings (2wp) 2 women productions talking you in. a life watch created and told by Dan yashinsky

the beeps of a machine are not enough.

PeteRBoRough: May 12 • SMith fallS: May 13 • PeRth: May 14 wakefielD: May 20 • caRleton Place: May 21 for full venue and ticket information please see below

For Immediate Release

Dan Yashinsky’s son was born severely ill. The little boy spent weeks in neo-natal care. He could not be touched; he was plugged into machines. At first, Dan and his wife sat silent like all the other neo-natal care parents. But Dan is a storyteller. “Star child,” he whispered. “Star Child, can you hear me?” Dan started speaking nursery rhymes, telling simple folk tales, relating bits of family history – anything, anything so his son would hear the joys of speech. Dan’s son is now a young adult. As a storyteller, Dan has fashioned the story of those troubled beginnings into a canta storia, a story accompanied by the music of famed jazz musician, Brian Katz, on guitar. The canta storia is part of a larger story – the story of becoming a storyteller (a last resort in a camp for difficult children); a story of stories old and new. It’s woven together in Talking You In. A Life Watch, and it’s coming to this community as part of 2 womenPRESS productions 2011 season. Dan hales from Toronto. He is one of Canada’s premier storytellers and arguably the one who is best known in- ternationally. He’s a founder of Toronto and also of the Toronto Festival of Storytelling. Listeners can know they’re in for a treat. With his guitar, Brian has found means to match the needs of the story exactly. Talking You In forms an integrated whole which is definitely greater than its parts. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and based in Lanark, 2 women productions was set up with the express purpose of bringing storytelling for adults to a wider . They brought you Landscapes of Silence. A Daughter’s Story in April. They are already planning their season for 2011/12. Managing director, Jennifer Cayley, says, “We know storytelling for adults is not something everyone is familiar with. We urge you to come out and try it. We believe you’ll find it powerful and compelling; we back believe it will touchRELEASE you deeply; we believe you’ll be amazed at the way the storyteller will always to front and always seem to be speaking just for you.” page 2 women productions. Storytelling. For adults. www.2wp.ca. We should count ourselves lucky that Jan and Jennifer are working in our area. It’s another feather in our cultural caps.

Contact: Jennifer Cayley [email protected] RR # 2, Lanark ON K0G 1K0 613-256-0353 w w w . 2 w p . c a talking You in. A Life watch 4 PRESS Kit talking you in created and told by Dan yashinsky

venue and ticket information

Peterborough, April 15 Market Hall Theatre, 140 Charlotte Street www.markethall.org all shows start at 7:30pm Tickets $18.00/advance; $20.00 at the door Box Office: www.markethall.org or call (705) 749-1146

Smiths Falls, April 16 Station Theatre, 63 Victoria Ave www.smithsfallstheatre.com all shows start at 7:30pm Tickets $18.00/advance; $20.00 at the door Box Office advance online: www.ticketsplease.ca or call Tickets Please (613) 485-6434, advance in person: Spotlight on the Rideau, 39 Chambers Street Shopping Plaza (613) 284-4141

Carleton Place, April 23 Carleton Place Cinema, 17 Albert St. PRESSwww.cpcinemas.com all shows start at 7:30pm Tickets $18.00/advance; $20.00 at the door Box Office: advance in person:Carleton Place Information Centre 132 Coleman St., 613-257-1976 advance online: www.ticketsplease.ca

Perth, April 29 Studio Theatre, 63 Gore Street East www.studiotheatreperth.com all shows start at 7:30pm RELEASETickets $18.00/advance; $20.00 at the door back to front Box Office: Tickets Please, 39 Foster Street page (613) 485-6434, www.ticketsplease.ca

Wakefield, April 30 Café Molo, 1 Ch Valley all shows start at 7:30pm Tickets $15.00 Box Office advance online: www.theatrewakefield.ca w w w . 2 w p . c a -30- talking You in. A Life watch 4 PRESS Kit

Dan Yashinsky

The Canadian Teller best known internationally, Dan is one of the founders of Storytelling Toronto (formerly the Storytellers School) and the inspirational force behind the birth of the Toronto Festival of Storytelling. He also began the longest-running open mic storytelling session in North America -- 1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling -- in 1978. He has performed and taught at festivals in Israel, Wales, England, Germany, Brazil, Austria, France, the U.S., Singapore, Ireland, and across Canada. He is the editor of four acclaimed collections of Canadian storytelling and the author of Suddenly They Heard Footsteps — Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century. He developed and hosted Talking Stick, a national storytelling radio show on CBC. He has been a storyteller-in- residence for UNICEF Canada, Queen's University, and the Toronto Public Library and recipient of a prestigious Chalmers Arts Fellowship. He will be accompanied by jazz musician Brian Katz. ARtiStS’Brian Katz Brian Katz is an internationally acclaimed guitarist, pianist, recording artist, improviser, composer, and music educator. As a performer and composer, he is noted for bringing classical and world music influences to modern jazz and Jewish music, and is highly regarded as a “free” music improviser. Brian recently worked alongside jazz and Grammy lifetime achievement award recipient, Barry Harris, preparing and conducting Dr. Harris’ mass choral works for combined children’s choirs. He teaches at the University of Toronto, has receivedBioS several awards from the Canada and Ontario Arts Councils, and was chosen to be artist-in-residence at Franklin Pierce College, New Hampshire in the summer of 2004. He tours internationally, giving solo and ensemble back concerts, and lectures/workshops in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, music pedagogy, to front composition, improvisation and guitar/piano performance.. page



w w w . 2 w p . c a talking You in. A Life watch 4 PRESS Kit 2 women productions

Based in Lanark, Ontario, founded in 2009, 2 women productions is dedicated to advancing and nurturing the art of storytelling for adult , particularly in performance settings. Initially, the core of the company’s work will be to tour three fine shows on an annual basis in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec; current communities reached are Carleton Place, Peterborough, Perth, Smith Falls and Wakefield. 2 women productions also welcome invitations for house concerts, performances and workshops in venues across the land.. The commitment is to storytelling at its very best. Material may be contemporary, personal, literary or traditional; it may be thought provoking, funny, deeply moving, raw. Whatever the genre or , exquisite crafting stands supreme. Impacts will leave audiences eager for more.

Vision

2wp believes that storytelling has come of age and stands positioned to assume its proper place in Canadian cultural life. The organization intends to be part of that. While continuing to work on the mounting of seasons in an increasing number of locations, its principals will also look towards promoting the shows it has presented on a wider basis across the land. They will seek to create opportunities for broader development: continuing to collaboratethE with national and local organizations with regard to forward-thinking changes; providing tellers with professional development opportunities such as master classes and intensives; sharing information with individ- uals, affording administrative expertise. They consider that 2wp is an organization whose time is right and anticipate that it will have much to contribute over many years. 2wp is working towards the fulfillment of a persistent dream: that cultural presenters across the land will come to afford major recognition to storytelling as an art form; that they will include storytelling shows in their own regular seasons and independently mount performances in locations large and small. PRoducERS back to front page

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Jan Andrews

Widely-recognized as a storyteller who touches her audiences with the depth and power of her work, Jan has traveled extensively, telling stories at festivals and in concerts across Canada, in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. A committed member of the Canadian storytelling community, she was the first president of Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada and founded the organization’s StorySave project. She also served as Artistic Director of two long-running Ottawa storytelling series (one at the Fourth Stage of the National Arts Centre). Previous collaborations with Jennifer include founding an arts education organization and producing and performing complete tellings of The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Mahabharata. Jan tells everything from folktales to literary stories, from to personal tales. She is also the author of classic books for young people. Always a groundbreaker, she was the first Storyteller/Writer in Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba.

A wealth of other information about her is to be found at: www.janandrews.ca Jennifer Cayley Jennifer has been telling stories professionallythE for nearly two decades. Career highlights in- clude: performing at the Talk Story Festival in Hawaii; appearing at the Fringe at the Annual Conference of the National Storytelling Network in St. Louis; touring The Book of Spells to Wales and Ontario; making regular appearances at the Ottawa StoryTellers National Arts Centre series; collaborating with Jan in producing epic pieces. Jennifer believes passionately that stories are important to all of us as we struggle to understand the shape and meaning of our lives. Her aim is always to make the profoundly simple contact between teller, story and listener richly alive. She is dedicated to bringing traditional stories to young people and works in schools settings through Prologue to the Performing Arts (www.prologue.org), MASC (www.masconline.ca) and the Ontario Arts Council’s Artists in Education Program. Building on her years as an award winning arts administrator at MASC, she is currently developing a career that seeks to use the power of traditional stories to facilitate organizationalPRoducERS change. back to front page

w w w . 2 w p . c a talking You in. A Life watch 4 PRESS Kit

download the poster:

pdf letter size: Peterborough, Smiths Falls, Carleton Place,

Perth, Wakefield

pdf tabloid size size: Peterborough, Smiths Falls,

Carleton Place, Perth, Wakefield

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download 2wp season brochure 4 pdfPicS

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